Welcome to The Sciku Project – the latest scientific and mathematical discoveries, thoughts and ideas as scientific haiku.
Latest:
…no time to dream by Mike Fainzilber
basic training
by Mike Fainzilber
the sleepless nights
of a dolphin mother
This haiku deals with unique modes of sleep and sleep deprivation and relates to a study that showed that newborn dolphins and their mothers do not sleep at all for the first month of the newborn’s life.
The newborns require constant support and vigilance during this period, otherwise they may sink in the water and drown, hence no sleep at all for the dolphin mother! Human mothers with offspring in basic training in the military can probably relate to this…
This haiku is the second in a pair of poems on unique modes of sleep and sleep deprivation, the first being inspired by nesting penguins: ‘To sleep…’
Further reading:
‘Continuous activity in cetaceans after birth’, 2005, Lyamin, O., Pryaslova, J., Lance, V. & Siegel, J., Nature, available: https://doi.org/10.1038/4351177a
‘Newborn dolphins go a month without sleep’, 2005, Coghlan, A., New Scientist, available: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7606-newborn-dolphins-go-a-month-without-sleep/
Author bio:
Mike Fainzilber’s day job is a biologist. He began writing haiku and senryu during the pandemic, and this side effect of COVID-19 has not worn off yet. Editors in his two spheres of activity have been known to suggest that he should best restrict his efforts to the other sphere. Find out more about Mike’s research via his lab’s website and connect with him on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/mfainzilber.bsky.social .
Read more sciku by Mike: ‘The deepest shade’, ‘Jellyfish’, and ‘In the Deep’, ‘The Blood and the Run’, and ‘To sleep…’.
To sleep… by Mike Fainzilber
micro-napping
by Mike Fainzilber
the penguin
and the soldier
This haiku deals with unique modes of sleep and sleep deprivation and relates to a study on nesting penguins in the wild, where the authors used remote monitoring techniques to determine sleep patterns. They found that wild chinstrap penguins sleep over 10,000 times a day, for an average of 4 seconds each time – totaling ~11 hours sleep per 24. This is an extreme case of microsleeps, interspersed by brief awake periods, and may help the penguins to guard their eggs during breeding season in the penguin colony. The parallels with the fitful short sleeps of a human soldier are highlighted in the haiku.
This haiku is the first in a pair of poems on unique modes of sleep and sleep deprivation, the second being inspired by dolphin mothers: ‘…no time to dream’.
Further reading:
‘Nesting chinstrap penguins accrue large quantities of sleep through seconds-long microsleeps’, 2023, Libourel, P-A., et al., Science, available: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adh0771
‘Penguins snatch seconds-long microsleeps’, 2023, Harding, C.D. & Vyazovskiy, V.V., Science, available: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adl2398
Author bio:
Mike Fainzilber’s day job is a biologist. He began writing haiku and senryu during the pandemic, and this side effect of COVID-19 has not worn off yet. Editors in his two spheres of activity have been known to suggest that he should best restrict his efforts to the other sphere. Find out more about Mike’s research via his lab’s website and connect with him on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/mfainzilber.bsky.social .
Read more sciku by Mike: ‘The deepest shade’, ‘Jellyfish’, and ‘In the Deep’, ‘The Blood and the Run’, and ‘…no time to dream’.
Gravity of Thought by Neena Singh
quantum physics
by Neena Singh
trying to wrap my head
around dark matter
What is Dark Matter?
Unsolved problem in physics: Dark matter is a form of matter that doesn’t emit, absorb, or reflect light, making it invisible. Its presence is inferred through its gravitational effects on visible matter, such as galaxies and stars.
Proportion: It accounts for approximately 27% of the universe’s mass-energy content, compared to just 5% for normal (baryonic) matter.
Further reading:
‘Dark matter’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter
Author bio:
Neena Singh is a banker turned poet. Her haikai poetry is regularly published in journals and magazines. She has published three books of poetry—”Whispers of the Soul: the journey within”, “One Breath Poetry” and the upcoming “A Peacock’s Cry – seasons of haiku”. She runs a non-profit for quality interventions in the education and health of underprivileged children in Chandigarh, India.
This poem was originally published in Haiku Dialogue, 29th January 2025.
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